


This Diamond Is A Girl's Best Friend

by HerenorThereNearnorFar



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Contemplative, Gen, Post-Episode: s05e23-24 Reunited, Tagged for Vaguely Implied Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-05
Updated: 2018-08-05
Packaged: 2019-06-22 02:00:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15571260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HerenorThereNearnorFar/pseuds/HerenorThereNearnorFar
Summary: You try to sleep with two alien empresses outside.





	This Diamond Is A Girl's Best Friend

The night the Diamonds arrive on earth, Connie goes to sleep in Steven’s house. In what’s _left_ of Steven’s house. He’s there too, legs wobbly and back still bruised, blinking slightly as if readjusting to being in his own body.

It had taken him some time to convince the Diamonds to leave them alone, at least for the night. They don’t understand food or sleep or the concept of clean clothes without tearstains on them.

Steven had told them he needed to heal and that had finally made them back off. Connie can still see them though, hovering around the house like great looming monuments to some elder age- as if the temple suddenly generated two more sisters out of the ether.

They’re watching.

She shivers.

Most of the kitchen is gone but at least Steven’s bedroom is still there. While Greg and Garnet are checking things like “structural stability” Steven carefully places Lapis and Peridot’s gems on the coffee table.

He looks at her. “Are you going to stay?”

She’d tried to text her parents, but the Cluster must have knocked out the nearest cell tower when it erupted. They haven’t answered yet. Even if they had, she’d want to stay regardless. There needs to be at least one human in the room for Steven’s sake.

She nods. Steven looks relieved, and that’s enough to make her certain she’s chosen correctly.

“Are you staying?” Greg asks when he comes back in with Garnet and Bismuth. (Bismuth is carrying the remains of Rose’s sword in a plastic bag. Connie tries not to look at her.) “‘Cause I was going to run to the shelter and make sure everyone knew it was safe now. Do you want me to tell your parents you’re here for the night?”

“Let me write a note,” Connie suggests. Her mother’s paranoid tendencies are easy to predict and easy to appease. A bit of material reassurance, especially if it comes with a signature, goes a long way with Dr. Maheswaren.

“Thanks,” Greg says, and looks them both over thoughtfully. “And you’re both comfortable here? The van is not far away…”

“Here is fine,” Steven insists, smiling at his dad like he didn’t just take a trip outside of his own body. “I want to make sure none of my stuff got too destroyed in the fight.”  
But when Greg is gone he doesn’t check on his books or his action figure collection, he heads up to the loft and starts unmaking the bed. Pearl, previously at the counter fussing over the sword with Bismuth, goes to join him.

“I’ll sleep on the floor, Connie,” he says barely glancing down. That makes sense. They are too old to share a bed- too big, and Steven’s bed was too little. Sleepovers in the past have always necessitated at least two sleeping bags and sometimes a big air mattress. And Steven’s a gentleman, and tonight she doesn’t want to make him stop.

Still feeling like a sleepwalker, she moves to his dresser. “Fine. Do you have a t-shirt I can borrow?” Her dress is covered in sand and sweat. She wore biking shorts underneath because dressing for a fight is always smart when the Gems are concerned, so that’s not a problem, but she needs _something_ to change into.

Pearl pause and pipes up, “Don’t worry Connie, I have some human clothes for emergencies that should work,” and then five minutes later Connie is in bathroom putting on a NASA t-shirt that looks like it was made for someone at least three times her size. Pearl had used safety pins at the shoulders to keep it on and she still feels like she’s drowning in it. She wonders if it was Rose’s.

Connie takes a moment to wash her face. The conservatively brown lipstick her mother had let her wear this morning comes off in a smear.

When she comes back out Garnet is out on the porch with Amethyst, staring down the Diamonds, and Pearl is handing Steven pajamas. He quickly disappears into the bathroom she vacated. Bismuth has gone entirely, taking Rose’s sword with her. Connie is glad- she thinks she likes Bismuth just from stories but their entire interaction has been limited to Bismuth asking if Connie uses Rose’s sword, and then Connie promptly breaking it.

Pearl smiles at her in a harried sort of way that does more harm than good. “If you’re both set up here…” she says, clearly hinting that she’s needed on guard duty. Perhaps it’s simply safest if the Diamonds see all of them very clearly not-hurting-Steven.

“I think we’re fine,” Connie says, hesitantly, though they aren’t fine. Everything feels so stressful and it feels even more stupid to complain about that to Pearl who’s facing the people who enslaved her. “Are you okay?”

That makes Pearl look at her, a little startled. She puts one hand on Connie’s shoulder.

“The fact that everyone came out of this alive- you and Steven especially- is more than I could have hoped for. Connie, you saw how beaten we were. This is a **victory**.”

Those can be confusing too, Connie is pretty sure, but she shakes it off and troops upstairs where there’s a pile of linens awaiting her. It looks like every pillow and blanket Pearl and Steven could find, including some from the couch, are laid out on the bed and the floor. Steven’s stuffed animals are lined up too. She cuddles one too her chest and squeezes it and soon Lion nonchalantly wanders up from the warp pad to lay with her.

Steven comes out of the bathroom, his hair tousled, wearing pajamas that make him look about eight. As someone who has been wearing knee length, frilly nightdresses all her life, Connie is unduly fond of them.

“We should go to sleep,” Connie says, still kneading the little brown bear.

“Yeah.” Steven agrees, as he sits on his sleeping bag, staring vaguely at the gap in the roof. Through it you can see the Diamonds’ forms, a little way off but still way too close and way too tall.

After several minutes of tossing and turning, Connie slides off the bed, bringing blankets and a disgruntled Lion with her. Wordlessly, Steven makes room for her. It’s a tight squeeze but it feels safer closer to the ground. It feels safest when Steven pulls a spare quilt that smells like must and storage closets over both of them, making the world a little darker.

Eventually, Connie goes to sleep. It's that or face tomorrow exhausted.

 

 

The morning after the Diamonds arrive on Earth, Connie eats breakfast at Steven’s house- if donuts brought by Greg at the crack of dawn count at breakfast. He arrived with a spare change of clothes from her parents too, which means Connie can wear pants again. She and Steven eat quickly and then switch out using the bathroom to shower and change. That buys them at least half an hour.

Bismuth has joined the others on the porch, and all they’re really waiting for is Steven. Waiting is the right word for it too, the Diamonds are getting restless. But frankly it’s unfair to force anyone to confront their evil estranged family before seven.

When they’re both fresh faced, presentable, and as full as they’re going to get in a house without a functioning kitchen, the sun is well in the sky, and there’s not much stalling either of them can do anymore.

Connie takes his hand. “You wanna go out together?”


End file.
